Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong on Sunday, start here. Most situations clear up with a few small checks.

Meter moves, but no text

The audio is reaching the browser, but captions are not appearing. This is one of the most common cases.

1. Make sure the session is actually live, not just open in the background.
2. Wait about 20 seconds. Translation does not start the instant you go live.
3. Check that the internet connection is working.
4. Refresh the page once. If that does not help, end live and start it again.
5. If the network keeps dropping, jump to Connection drops.

Choppy captions

Phrases break in odd places, or words arrive in pieces.

Often the cause is that Sanalive is hearing too much music or congregational singing mixed with speech. Turn music down on the feed Sanalive hears. Feeding Sanalive speech only is best.

Another common cause is the wrong kind of cable between mixer and computer. For example, when connecting to a laptop, make sure a 3.5 mm plug has four black rings, not two or three. If you suspect the wiring, test translation with the device’s own microphone. If translation starts working, the problem is in the connection. More detail is under What to send.

The speaker’s level matters too. If the meter is in the red or barely moving, fix that first under Levels.

Echo

If Sanalive hears the room speakers as well as the person, captions and translation get confused quickly. Some words repeat; others are missed.

The best fix is to take audio from the mixer instead of a microphone in the room. If you are using a headset or phone, move it away from the PA speakers and closer to the speaker. Also make sure the headphones can reduce distant sound (for example noise cancelling).

On a mixer feed, use Soundboard / raw so the browser does not try to “fix” an already clean signal. And do not play listener phones through the room speakers — that sends the translation back into the microphone.

Delay

A little delay is normal. Captions usually arrive about 1–2 seconds behind the speaker. Flash voice averages about 5 seconds behind the speaker, but long, complex sentences take longer. Standard audio is often another 2–5 seconds behind Flash.

If the speaker is very fast, try the Quick option in the Sanalive mixer, and look for more controls under Fine-tune. If delay keeps growing through the sermon despite those settings, the cause may be the network rather than the speaker. Check the computer’s connection and/or switch to Standard audio.

Connection drops

You may see messages like:

• Captions disconnected — reconnecting… — the link blipped, and the app is trying again. Prefer a cable for the operator. Do not refresh the page in a loop.
• Too many caption reconnects — transcription paused to protect spend. — captions were paused on purpose so usage is not wasted. Fix the network first, then start live again.

A wired connection for the operator is usually the cure. A listener whose connection drops can switch to mobile data and scan the QR again.

Listener hears nothing

Work through these in order:

1. Are headphones plugged in, and is the volume up?
2. Is a language selected?
3. Does the screen say “This phone has no {lang} voice”? Then the phone needs that language voice. Steps: How listeners join.
4. Have Flash hours run out? Captions continue, but Flash voice does not. Tell listeners that. More: When Flash hours run out.

Microphone permission

If Chrome never asks for the microphone, or the microphone list is empty, the browser cannot reach the audio source.

1. Click the lock icon in the address bar and set Microphone to Allow.
2. Reload the page.
3. On a phone, also check the system setting that lets Chrome use the microphone.
4. Quit other apps that may be holding the mic (calls, Zoom, Teams).

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